--- Peter de Bruyn Kops <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
, we've seen
> major
> winter losses (50-90%) on a 2-3 year cycle in
> operations
> that run 50-200 colonies.
Hello Timothy and Peter,
I respond because I have experienced the exact type of losses every 2 to 3
years.
I had a very long post written, but decided to spare the readers and cut
it 90% back to a few key points.
So I don’t have to keep writing it
All I write below is “IMO” ;)
The problem is basically, that an inability of the subpopulation to cope
with your specific environmental factors exists. And the solution is
creating a subpopulation of bees adapted to cope with the “environmental
factors” of your particular area.
Colonies should NOT be dying in mass!
If they are, this suggests an inadequacy of traits exist in the
subpopulation of bees, essential for survival.
But, this does not point to anything wrong with an individual colony or
two, or mismanagement. But instead points to a basic ‘failure of the sub
population’ and subsequently, a threshold of some kind being reached in
the sub population of bees to a overbearing degree which causes a
correction. The traits in the sub population have a job to do, and any
mass collapses suggests a ‘failure to do its job’ in supporting the
population in a sustainable manner. Steps taken to repair the sub
population back to fitness will solve the problem.
The key point to ponder is in a book by Everett Phillips. In his most
wonderful publication ‘Beekeeping; a discussion of the life of the
honeybee and of the production of honey’
(1918) Pg 35 Phillips writes:
“The environmental factor may be inside or outside the hive, or
even inside or outside the individual bee. For example, pathogenic
micro- organisms or irritating foods are inside but not part of the
animal and are therefore environmental factors.”
Perhaps, nowadays, we place such a great emphasis on performance at the
colony level, we neglect, and GREATLY underestimate the impact from that
of the environmental factor.
We must therefore consider something that might not have been thought of
as being an environmental factor, and that is the ‘traits possessed by the
local sub population‘, which I believe are perhaps the ‘greatest
environmental factor of all’ influencing beekeepers colonies, even above
that of the most severe winters.
To repair this environmental factor of traits lacking, (which I believe
shows itself with mass die offs). I decided the best way to do this was
to start up a feral recovery and integration program in my area, which
seems to have succeeded with the infusion of essential traits of survival
from surviving ferals from over a several county area into my sub
population of bees. From this realization of how great an impact the
feral recovery that I helped to achieve in my area was, I created the
feralbeeproject.com to promote the practice of collecting ferals for the
betterment of beekeeping.
Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
Pennsylvania
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